Do you wake up every morning in a panic, rushing around trying to get ready for your day? Do you end up leaving the house and forgetting things, or spend your whole day worried that you left your coffeemaker on?
Guys, it doesn’t have to be like that. You deserve to wake up and start your day with a sense of peace, calm, and control, not stress and frustration. With the help of Over Easy, you can learn how to manage your busy mornings better so that you don’t accidentally leave the house without your kid (not that we’ve ever done that).
Why Is It So Busy?
Step one of restructuring your busy mornings into something more manageable is evaluating why the heck they are so busy in the first place.
Take a close look at your morning, from start to finish. What time do you get out of bed? What do you have for breakfast? What time do you have to be at work? If you have kids, what time do they have to be at school? Where are you really getting held up?
Once you’ve looked at your morning, you can start to take steps to manage it better, but you have to get real about where your potential problems are. Remember, busy mornings don’t make you a bad employee, partner, or parent. You just need a little help in making them work for you instead of the other way around.
Sleep Schedule
For most people, the craziness of the morning starts the second they wake up. As soon as that alarm goes off, they already feel like they’re racing the clock and losing.
To help, change up your sleep schedule.
This starts the night before. Most of us get caught up in whatever show we’re binging or endlessly scrolling through funny cat videos and don’t realize how late it’s gotten until we’re waking up exhausted and sleep-deprived the next morning. This is way more common than you’d think, so don’t stress just yet.
Managing your sleep schedule is the best place to start to make your mornings easier. It’s important that you get at least 7 hours of sleep a night, according to the CDC. Getting less sleep than that starts to impact nearly every part of your life—from your patience level to your response time and even the way your body functions occur. If you’re ready to throttle your deskmate, it might be a lack of sleep to blame.
It can be helpful to figure out a bedtime routine that will work for you. For some people, this includes taking a calming bath. For others, it’s taking off their makeup and doing a home facial. Whatever it is, make sure that it helps calm you down instead of stressing you out. Focus on being in bed early enough to give yourself time to fall asleep, and try to keep any and all electronic devices off for at least half an hour before bedtime.
Once you get the hang of your new, earlier bedtime, start setting your alarm just a little bit earlier. Aim for about 15 minutes earlier than the time it is currently set, which will give you a little time and space in the morning. You’ll be amazed at how much difference just a few minutes in the morning can make when you have the time to really feel calm and ready to take on your day without being rushed. Have an extra cup of coffee, do some invigorating yoga, or just hit your snooze button an extra time.
Breakfast and Coffee Time
Once you’re finally up and ready to go, it’s time to get a handle on breakfast.
For most of us, breakfast starts with coffee. But making coffee happen in the morning can take up too big of a portion of your time and lead to making poor choices like drive-through lattes day after day. Not only is that unhealthy, but it can also get expensive (have you seen the Starbucks prices these days?). Instead of letting that take over your life, take control of your routine.
One of the best places to start is by investing in a home coffee maker with an automatic timer setting. By prepping your coffee the night before, you’ll be able to wake up to the smell of coffee and be able to just pour yourself a cup and go. It’ll save you both time and money.
With that under control, it’s all about the food. When we’re running behind and feel like we’re out of time, breakfast is one of the first things we cut. Unfortunately, that can have a major effect on your health. Breakfast kick starts your metabolism, leads to better memory and concentration, and has also been linked to a lowered risk of developing diabetes and obesity. With so many benefits to eating a healthy breakfast, you better drop that toaster pastry right now.
When you plan ahead for breakfast, you’re setting yourself up for success. That’s why we created our breakfast bars so that you can give yourself a healthy start without a lot of prep work. With plenty of protein and fiber (and a kick-ass taste), you’ll also be able to avoid that embarrassing mid-meeting stomach growl. Shove one into your kid’s hand on their way out the door and let them start their school day right—they won’t even know they’re eating something healthy.
Make A Better Plan
If your main problem is leaving the house without half of your stuff, or worse, two different shoes, you likely need to devise a better plan to help you manage.
Much like working on your sleep schedule, making a better plan for your day starts the night before. Before you start your bedtime routine, or perhaps as part of one, take stock of what the next day will bring. Do you have a big meeting? Do your kids have a doctor’s appointment? Look over your entire day and think about what you can do to make it easier.
As part of planning ahead, set your clothes out. Trying to find an outfit when you’re running late leads to ending up at work before you notice that you’ve put on mismatched shoes or that your shirt is backwards. When you have your outfit planned out ahead of time, you not only save yourself time but also the potential for embarrassment. Plus, standing in front of your closet feeling like you have nothing to wear is one of the most annoying things in the world.
Of course, the most important way that you can set yourself up for success is by making sure you know where your keys are ahead of time. Since this is one of the most common things that make people late, as well as one of the most stressful ways to start any morning, knowing where they are is one of the best things you can do for yourself.
If this is a consistent habit for you, consider investing in some of the newer technology that uses an app on your smartphone to keep track of them. Save yourself the 15 minutes of yelling about where your keys are. It’ll be nice, we promise.
A Few Other Hacks
Ultimately, the best way to manage a busy morning is by customizing it to what will work best for you. There really isn’t a one size fits all approach, as every morning and every situation is different.
One of our favorite morning hacks is to jam to some music. While this may sound a little strange at first, when you consider all the benefits that music has to offer, it starts to make a lot of sense. Develop a mornings-only playlist full of songs that you love and amp you up. Your mornings will be a lot easier and a whole lot more fun when you can dance your way through them. It’ll start you off in a much more positive mood, too. If you have kids, they’ll love it too, and it might make managing them a little bit easier.
Another recommendation that people have for those trying to get a better handle on their morning is to stay away from technology (short of turning off your alarm) for at least half an hour after you wake up. When you start out your day jumping right into the hustle and bustle, it immediately puts your brain into panic mode. You start thinking of all the things you have to do instead of easing gently in. So please, stop checking your email while you’re still in bed.
In Conclusion…
Your mornings don’t have to be busy to be productive. Once you learn how to manage them better, like planning your breakfast ahead of time and getting a handle on your sleep schedule, you’ll wonder why you put yourself through all those cranky mornings. Over Easy breakfast bars are a great way to eat a healthy, nutritious breakfast on the go and give you one less thing to worry about.
Sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep/how_much_sleep.html
https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/breakfast-lose-weight#1
https://www.health.com/condition/stress/5-science-backed-reasons-why-music-is-good-for-you